PARIS (AP) -- France's far-right National Front party is emerging from the European parliamentary elections as the leading party of France.

Two polling firms projected that the National Front would get a quarter of Sunday's votes with high-profile candidates, including Marine Le Pen, coming out comfortably ahead.

Le Pen said in a statement "this hope should unite us."

Both the Ipsos and CSA polling firms projected that the National Front would get 25 percent of the vote, more than any other party. The turnout was estimated at 43 percent, slightly better than the 2009 EU vote. The projection uses the same methodology for all voting in France, based on actual results from a select number of polling stations.